Sorry, Charlie

I have ideas for several gaming stores in the world of d20monkey. Many of the ideas focus on themes, such as the shop Charlie references in today’s comic: The Wayward Gamer (a shop specializing in gaming for the blind). I imagine braille versions of all of the classic games, with a focus on building a strong community. Shops such as these will come into play over the lifetime of this comic and I hope to steadily build a cast of characters from all walks of gamer life. Time will tell.

For now, Charlie is trying to be a voice of reason in all of the table drama.

The varying opinions of the regular commenters is amazing (in a very good way). Folks seem to support different sides and the discussions are excellent. The best part? Nobody’s been a dick yet. Woot!

See, the thing Charlie’s missing here, least in my opinion, is that the bigger issue isn’t that Mel’s boyfriend is a jackass, its that she just walked away after finding out he pummeled Sam. That she took no action to make it right or show any remorse, or anything like that

@Thorfin we don’t know what Mel said to Douchebro off camera at this point. We know she chased after him, but given that Sam has been a hugely petty and retaliatory prick, I don’t think she’s had the chance or desire to tell him anything sympathetic.

I’m not sure that Douchebro’s behavior is her responsibility. It’s certainly not her fault; she may have made a poor choice in significant other, but she’s hardly his keeper or his mother. She didn’t hold a gun to his head, he’s the asshole who blew up and beat the crap out of someone, and that’s on him, not her.

I’d love to see him come slinking back with a mouthful of bitter apologies after Mel reamed him a new one for his stupid, churlish behavior, but I could just as easily see him as a lurking character, a leering menace from the sidelines.

Depends on how serious D20Monkey wants to get, I suppose. I could also just as easily see him eaten by a terrasque 😛

JJ- I don’t see it. Mel is legitimately Sam’s friend. He was seriously injured by her bf. Unless they’re newly dating she should know better than to try to mix oil and water however briefly in the first place. And while she certainly isn’t responsible for his behavior after he arrives one at least empathisizes when one’s friend is pummeled by anyone.

If this were taking place in reality I totally back Sam’s initiative in being inspired by his own life. He took it too far of course…

JJ- Nope, that’s not it. It’s not that she’s responsible for DB’s behavior; we’re talking about her own actions. She’s Sam’s friend and she should have done something to shore up her friendship with him instead of just walking away. She could have berated douchebro right there, or she could have taken care of Sam and made sure he was okay. But she didn’t. And it’s her lack of action of any kind that’s downright lame.

Nah, not really. There are already more than enough dicks on the Internet, both literal and figurative. Besides, I really love the way this story is going, as well as all the interesting thoughts everyone has on it.

@Calendril @FatherVenom – I dunno, I empathize with Mel. If someone I knew beat up someone else I knew, I’d damn well chase after the beater and not sit and hold the beatee’s hand (provided the beatee doesn’t need me to rush him to the hospital). It’s not Mel’s job to apologize for DB’s behavior (especially because any apology would probably be accompanied by some lame attempt to defend it), and somehow I don’t feel like she got the chance to connect with Sam–it seems like he went right for the vengeance crusade without stopping at lets-talk-about-what-happened-ville.

Of course, we’re all making big assumptions here, since it’s not been shown either way what happened. I guess that’s why the Sam-apologists don’t seem right to me–there’s the assumption that Mel fled the scene and didn’t contact him at all, where it could be equally plausible that she chased down DB, and when she tried to contact Sam he ignored her, already hurt and angry about the whole thing.

Or that Mel fled the scene and was too hideously embarrassed to bring it up. Girls can be conditioned to defend even the most reprehensible behavior out of some misguided ideal of “loyalty to your man.” For all of Mel’s strong-girl characterization, it’s really hard to escape that kind of socialization.

Or that Mel fled the scene and fell into a black hole where she was whisked off to fairy-land and couldn’t contact Sam because the fairy king just wanted her to dance for him forever, and it was only by luck and cleverness that she escaped him only to be run over by Sam’s bitter vengeance when she got back.

I think that Charlie is acting out of character with a good purpose but I think that he, and some of the posters here, are out of sync with what Sam is trying to do. Based on Sam seeing the ‘lich’ psychiatrist when he wanted to ‘get control of his group’, as well as the writer/artist own involvement with the Fourthcore movement, as well as the popularity of OSR where TPK and tournament style beat downs are not uncommon, I still say Sam is just running it his way as opposed to being out for vengance. The thing we haven’t seen yet is Sam’s reaction, what the treasure the players would’ve earned, how much experience they’ve earned, etc…. If the treasure is high enough, the kill count is more than accetpable. In addition, Sam’s allowed the dice to roll where they will with Lord Douchebro for instance as opposed to ignoring it and going for the kill. He’s also played to his standard goals of killing Brett first as opposed to his ‘vengance’! that some claim he’s after.

and done! I spent the last two days reading from beginning to end and I got to say I love d20monkey! Keep up the excellent work.

As far as this last arc I love it and how it ended, made sense to me. I still think that what she wanted to talk to Sam about was that she dump Douchebro for what he did but that Sam screwed any chance that he had with this stunt. Either that or it was a clever attempt to get Mel and Brett to work together for a change.

I second Elder Blue Dragon’s comment. The lack of PC-killing in this installment makes me thirstily yearn for more bloodspilling.

All joking aside, the turnabout with Charlie is fantastic. In regards to the debate posed here between J.J. et al, all make valid points but the rawness of a situation like that lends itself to the awkward aftermath we’ve all enjoyed for the past few weeks. Hats off to Brian – I think everyone’s actions (or lack thereof) are more true-to-life than you may think.

Yeah I’m not going to apologize for Sam but that doesn’t make Mel right. It is absolutely reprehensible to me that she would leave with Douchebro or have anything to do with him after that kind of behavior. That so-called apology that J.J. pointed out is so weak-sauce and contradicted by her actions as to be meaningless.
Sam on the other hand is breaking the First Law of Gamemastering (and several others) and basically being an emo dick. I can empathize with where he’s coming from because I have been an emo dick at times myself, but he’s still a jerk. Even in reaction to other people’s jerkiness, it’s not cool.
It is damned entertaining though.

Sam is totally ruining his chances, also being a total douche.
Almost as big a douche as her BF. Speaking of, god how does she even look herself in the mirror. And just walking off with a weak sorry when he beat up Sam was pathetic of her.

Brian, your idea of a gaming store for the blind is interesting.
I’ve been involved in the Deaf community for a few years now, and I’m giving serious thought to creating the signs necessary to forming a Deaf or mixed Deaf/Hearing D&D group. I’m sure such groups already exist, but all of my searching revealed no larger presence on the Internet for them to connect, meaning that there’s no standardized sign-set for Deaf tabletop gamers, which sucks something fierce.
My only worry is that instead of being a Partner I’m accidentally being the condescending ‘normal’ guy, stepping in and saying “OH HERE LET ME DO THAT FOR YOU.” I asked my Professor, who is Deaf, and if he says it’s okay for me to create my own signs I hope to begin the project shortly after Christmas.
If I may ask (and if someone’s asked before, I apologize) is Charlie based on someone in your life, or are you otherwise involved in the Blind community?